Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-28
HUNTING LEOPARDS IN INDIA.


HUNTING LEOPARDS IN INDIA.
How Large Specimens arc Taken
Captive.
The accounts of the hunting leop-
ards found in books of travel read as
if they belonged more properly to a
chapter in the Arabian Nights than to
treatise on natural history, and yet
the accounts are mainly true. The
animal itself has become almost ia
miliar. The London Geological Gar
dens possess a very fine specimen.
He is lodged in the lion house, and is
next door neighbor to one of the
fiercest tigers in the gardens. His
habits are not to be judged by his
company. He is quiet, attachable
brute, living on terms of famil-
iarity with his keeper, under
whose caresses he will purr in a
manner understood toexpress delight,
but to uninitiated ears sufficiently for
midable. Indeed, he is in many ways
a contradiction and a compromise.
There is a great deal of the dog about
him. He is long-legged and hard
| footed. His claws are strong and
broad, like those of fox terrier. and
as he jumps about his cage the foot
strikes the ground firmly, and not
with the silent, velvet pressure of the
tiger or the puma; and yet his head
and, indeed, the whole of his anatomy,
shows him to be a cat. The Prince of
Wales, on his return from India,
brought pair of these leopards with
him. They were very tame, and it
was hoped they would breed in the
gardens.
TRAINING OF THE LEoPARDs.
But Londoners were familiar with
the creature long before all wild ami
mails were lodged in Regents Park.
At the end of the last century, when
Seringapatam was stormed, among
the treasures OF Tippo Sahib's palace
were three highly trained leopards.
These were esteemed of such value
that they were sent to England and
presented to the King, and George
Ill. added them to the menagerie of
the tower. They seem to thrive in
England, though they do not multi
ply. The training of them is
not very complicated process. Ma
ture does most of it. The natives
maintain that for true sport you must
commence your training with the
fully grown animals. The desirable
| fierceness and fleetness are only thus
to be secured. The natives have in
| deed, the same idea about hawks. To
English ideas the sport seems curious
ly tame and uneventful. The leopard
is brought out in a bullock cart, with
kind OF mask that covers its eyes.
A chain also is slipped round its loins.
1t is quite tame, knowing its keeper
and anticipating the sport.
| HUNTING FOR ANTELOPE.
The cart drives along, accompanied
by the sportsmen, to spot which the
herd OF antelopes will presently cross
in their course. The dogs all go first,
the black buck-the pride of the
fock--invariably brings up the rear.
The motive is aseribed to jealousy,
and desire to keep his females all
under his eye. Whatever the mo-
tive, the position is fatal to
him. At the proper moment the
hood is slipped off the cheetah's
head, and his prey is shown to him.
Unlike the dog, he seems to hunt by
sight, and not by scent. He looks
keenly about him for one moment,
and then drops off the cart, generally
at the off side, using it for a cover as
long as he can. If there are trees or
any rising ground, he is quick to take
advantage of them, and then makes
his burst upon his quarry. He almost
invariably chooses the buck, and he
runs him d,wn by sheer feetness.
This is the meaning of those
dog-like claws and the great
length of the limb that makes him
look almost out OF proportion in the
lions house at the Regents Park,
where all the other catlike creatures
tigers, leopards, jaguars, pamas and
lions-are short-legged and crouching.
The speed is scarcely to be credited
there is no English greyhound that
can run down a doe antelope. But it
is sorry sport at best-if indeed it can
be called sport at all. The cheetah
springs on the back of the buck,
strangles it and laps up its blood. The
huntsman comes up, cuts the throat
of the antelope and, letting the blood
flow into wooden cup, gives it to the
cheetah, watching his time when the
creature is gorged to slip the hood
over his eyes and lead him back to the
cart.
ACCOUNTS OF THE NATIVES OF INDIA.
The natives give their accounts of
the animal more picturesquely, and
the native accounts are still to be
found in the natural history books.
In a wild state the cheetah feeds
itself only every three days, gorging
itself on these occasions and w.
ing comatose during the intervals.
The specimen at the Geological
Gardens is pretty active all day, and
falls in with the regulation hours
as to food with great docility, and even
with zest. In their pursuit of prey
they are social. and in that way differ
from most of the other carnivora.
Two or three of them will meet
at night and go forth on their
hunting expeditions in company. 1t
is by ascertaining their place Of tryst
that the natives are able to capture
them. 1t is very often by the trunk
of tree, which is found all scratched
and barhed by their claws.
Nooses and meshes are driven into